irish44j
Well-known member
So this is in my build thread, but since only like 3 people actually follow it figured I'd post it up separately in case anyone cares. Backstory: I have the Raider, a Sequioa that we use for rally support and towing, and a trailer. I have one winch that I plan to use for all three, so it has to be able to move around. The trailer has its own hitch-style receiver at the front end, and the Sequoia has both front and rear hitches as well. So, wanted the Raider to be able to use the winch as well (in front or rear), so needed to add a front mount. Obviously this isn't rocket science, but figured it may give someone some ideas....
First, headed to the junkyard to pull a hitch assembly off of something. There are plenty of different hitch designs, I was looking for something with square tube and large end plates from a full-size, mostly because they all cost the same at the pick-and-pull and a big one gives me more steel to use for projects. So, this one came off an old Suburban, and walked out with it for about $20.
I got this one because it's very wide with a lot of 2" bar, and very large end plates to give me some 1/4" heavy plate to cut up. I think I can used this for both my Raider front hitch project as well as a hitch mount on the trailer for the winch tray. So got right to work cutting this thick-ass metal up. One of these days I'll get a plasma cutter, but until then it's angle grinders and sawzall...
After much measuring and pretty careful cutting, mocked it up in place roughly.
You can see there's a gap at each end, and that's intentional as I want larger 1/4 plates at the ends to spread the load. You may also notice it's turned around backward so the "thick" end of the receiver is actually not on the outside. If I was going to put a heavy trailer load on this, I'd want that outward for extra support of the receiver, but since this will be used primarily for winch/recovery with a pulling load, not too concerned. Plus, I want to make it sit flush with the bumper so I can hide it under the license plate.
So after measuring and mocking up, marked the bumper and cut a 2 1/2" hole, and then used a jigsaw to turn the hole into a square (didn't take a pic of that but you'll see it later)...
test fit with the bumper on, where you can see the receiver sitting flush with the hole
test fit with the winch platform on just to make sure the holes for the hitch pin is shallow enough to be reached with it turned around backward. It actually turned out just about right, with the platform close flush with the bumper - but a bit of interference of the Hellas with the platform handles, so will adjust the light position to clear.
Once I knew that the general setup fit well, I cut out some end plates from the huge end plates on the Suburban hitch. Here's one of the test-fitted (using a single bolt into the OEM skidplate mount hole to hold it in place). This is all 1/4" stuff, by the way.
With both plates on, I mocked up the main bar again - pretty happy with my measuring and cutting, it's damn near exact and the bar actually stays in place by friction/pressure alone in this pic (nothing is actually holding it), so that's pretty good.
First, headed to the junkyard to pull a hitch assembly off of something. There are plenty of different hitch designs, I was looking for something with square tube and large end plates from a full-size, mostly because they all cost the same at the pick-and-pull and a big one gives me more steel to use for projects. So, this one came off an old Suburban, and walked out with it for about $20.
I got this one because it's very wide with a lot of 2" bar, and very large end plates to give me some 1/4" heavy plate to cut up. I think I can used this for both my Raider front hitch project as well as a hitch mount on the trailer for the winch tray. So got right to work cutting this thick-ass metal up. One of these days I'll get a plasma cutter, but until then it's angle grinders and sawzall...
After much measuring and pretty careful cutting, mocked it up in place roughly.
You can see there's a gap at each end, and that's intentional as I want larger 1/4 plates at the ends to spread the load. You may also notice it's turned around backward so the "thick" end of the receiver is actually not on the outside. If I was going to put a heavy trailer load on this, I'd want that outward for extra support of the receiver, but since this will be used primarily for winch/recovery with a pulling load, not too concerned. Plus, I want to make it sit flush with the bumper so I can hide it under the license plate.
So after measuring and mocking up, marked the bumper and cut a 2 1/2" hole, and then used a jigsaw to turn the hole into a square (didn't take a pic of that but you'll see it later)...
test fit with the bumper on, where you can see the receiver sitting flush with the hole
test fit with the winch platform on just to make sure the holes for the hitch pin is shallow enough to be reached with it turned around backward. It actually turned out just about right, with the platform close flush with the bumper - but a bit of interference of the Hellas with the platform handles, so will adjust the light position to clear.
Once I knew that the general setup fit well, I cut out some end plates from the huge end plates on the Suburban hitch. Here's one of the test-fitted (using a single bolt into the OEM skidplate mount hole to hold it in place). This is all 1/4" stuff, by the way.
With both plates on, I mocked up the main bar again - pretty happy with my measuring and cutting, it's damn near exact and the bar actually stays in place by friction/pressure alone in this pic (nothing is actually holding it), so that's pretty good.
